Happy hours and drinking games to be banned under new laws

Happy hours, drinking games and all-you-can-drink deals in pubs and bars will be banned, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Happy hours and drinking games to be banned under new lawsPhoto: CHRISTOPHER PLEDGER

By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor

11:15PM GMT 21 Nov 2008

Ministers also want to force drinks companies to carry health warnings on television adverts for beer, wine and spirits.

And cans and bottles of alcoholic drinks may have to bear cigarette-style medical advice about the dangers of drinking.

The announcement of the plans in 10 days' time will coincide with the start of the Christmas party season when police forces and hospitals see a major rise in alcohol-related offences and admissions to accident and emergency departments.

Ministers have drawn up a new draft code of conduct for the drinks industry amid growing concern about excessive drinking.

Alcohol misuse is said to cost society up to £25billion annually, with the cost to the NHS running at £2.7billion a year.

The new rules will be compulsory, and are likely to trigger protests from the drink industry.

The crackdown comes three years after the Government introduced 24 hour drinking in bars and pubs. The relaxation in the licensing laws was blamed on increased instances of alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour.

Earlier this year health minister Dawn Primarolo warned that enforced regulation "could be on the cards" after the drinks industry had failed voluntarily to curb binge drinking.

The Daily Telegraph understands that the new mandatory Code of Conduct for all bars, pubs and clubs, which will have the force of law, will ban:

::"speed drinking deals", such as offering free drinks before the first goal is scored in a football match;

:: "all you can drink" offers, drinking games and free drinks for women.

The bans will be enforced by local authorities and police, which could lead to bans in some cities but not others.

Under the code, pubs, bars and clubs will also have to display unit levels around the till area and offer large and small glasses for wine.

Any cheaper offers on alcoholic drinks must also be offered for soft drinks to give customers a choice of what to drink.

Separately, ministers are considering other plans to restrict the broadcast of the adverts until after a 9pm watershed.

Internet and newspaper adverts will also have to carry warnings, while ministers are likely to give the industry until next March to agree to print health warnings on drink labels, or face being forced to by law.

The plans for the new code should be put to the Cabinet on Thursday and announced on the following Monday.

The code does not deal with stopping retailers of supermarkets from selling beer and wine at cut prices however.

Ministers are understood to be considering to set a minimum price for different strengths of alcohol to stop the practice of shops selling wine and beer at a loss.

The plan would be based loosely on a "social reference pricing" model which has been used in Canada.

The new regulations will be part of a new Criminal Justice Bill which will be proposed in next month's Queen's Speech.

Last night frontline police officers, which have called for drinks promotions to be banned because they can turn towns centres into no-go areas at night , welcomed the plans.

Simon Reed, the vice chairman of the Police Federation, said: "If this is going to happen we think it is a move in the right direction. Some of these happy hours have led to some of the behaviour we see in our town and city centres."

Chris White, chairman of the Local Government Association's culture, tourism and sport committee, added: "It sounds like a good idea but we need to see the detail.

"We favour this sort of approach. We want to get back to when our town centres were usable by everyone. This is about quality of life."

Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, welcomed the plans but said it would only address half of the problem. The Government should now focus its efforts on tackling supermarkets and retailers.

He said: "If introduced, these measures will not go far enough to tackle binge drinking. Some of the biggest culprits in fuelling binge drinking and anti-social behaviour are supermarkets and off-licenses who sell alcohol very cheaply.

"The biggest rises in affordability of alcohol have come from the off-trade, so the Government needs to crack down on this too or the practice of pre-loading on cheap bought-in booze before hitting the town will continue."

A spokesman at the Department for Health said she could not comment on speculation about the contents of the Queen's Speech.

The crackdown comes after a committee of MPs called for the ban on happy hours as well as new curbs on supermarkets selling cheap alcohol at a loss.

The Home Affairs Select Committee warned that alcohol-related disorder was placing "a heavy burden" on police and diverting officers from fighting serious crime.

The report found that 45 per cent of victims of violence said their assailant was under the influence of alcohol, while other research found the price of alcohol had fallen sharply over the past 30 years.